Drivers

$4.1 Verdict Against R&L Carriers in Texas Crash

A 41-year-old Mississippi woman, seriously injured when her pick-up truck rolled over, after it was rear-ended by an 18-wheel tractor-trailer driver on a Texas interstate highway in 2011, was awarded $4.1 million by a Dallas, Texas jury.

The jury ruled late last Thursday that the truck driver, who had two previous rear-end collisions, was grossly negligent, according to a release from the plaintiff’s attorney, Fitts Zehl LLP, based in Houston. The jury also found his employer, Greenwood Motor Lines, doing business as R&L Carriers, was also grossly negligent in failing to properly supervise and train the driver.

The collision happened near Weatherford, Texas on I-20 on the evening of Dec. 5, 2011, seriously injuring Bobbie Bush. The truck driver was estimated to have been traveling at least 65 mph at the time of the collision, according to Bush’s attorney.

The jury award included $1.2 million for Bush's past and future medical expenses, $1 million for past and future physical impairment, and $50,000 in punitive damages against the trucking company.

The case is Bobbie Bush v. R&L Carriers, Inc., et al, in the 298th District Court of Dallas County, Texas.

Comments

1.Alfred Baack[ May 28, 2014 @ 01:49PM ]

Of course R and L is having legal issues. When they fire a driver, who had previously worked over 1000 hours for them as a temporary, without any issues whatsoever, because (he) would not drive unsafe equipment, the "corporate culture" of the "new'" R & L speaks for itself. Having worked years ago for them, when they had still been "family owned," it was a truly safe company; however, with the "corporate takeover," they have become just as irresponsible as the "other 'trucking' companies."

2.juan robledo[ November 24, 2014 @ 04:27AM ]

It never seems to amaze me the constant tailgating done by big trucks, I see this type of unsafe driving on a daily basis, a lot has to do with inexperienced drivers who barely got any training on safety or their employers do not have yearly safety meetings or classes, and at tim s this drivers will not back off to give the driver of a smaller vehicle time to get over, I myself was being tailgated going thru a construction site where the speed limit dropped to 65 but this driver had an agenda he even tried to force me over in my own personal car with my family in it, he was pulled over by a sheriff deputy and soon other witnesses did to, they gave the deputy accounts of this guys driving and tailgating incident he was cited for speeding, tailgating, reckless driving, and he was in a rush to get to his terminal 20 miles up the road, not sure why he tried to put my family and myself, I'm a truck driver with 27 years of accident free miles over 2 million miles, is it really worth the life's of others just to satisfy yours

3.bill dolloff[ December 04, 2014 @ 06:41AM ]

IN RELATION TO ACCIDENTS AND TRUCKS THE BIGGER ONE WINSI WAS ON I-44 BETWEEN SPRINGFIELD,MO AND JOPLIN,MO I PASSED 6 DIFFERENT TRUCKS AND ALL THE DRIVERS WERE ONCELL PHONES. I THOUGHT THIS WAS TO S T O P

4.Flat Broke[ January 12, 2015 @ 03:08PM ]

I too worked for R&L, accumulating around 2 milliion miles, and no violations in my fifteen years with them. While not defending the company, I learned that drivers are also at fault for contributing to some crashes other than by their driving. For instance, I was relaying a trailer that had arrived at my home terminal to another terminal. As I did my pretrip, I noticed a spring hanging out a bit farther than normal for the weight. Upon "further inspection", I determined that the single suspension spring was broken and had been that way for some time. Apparently when SP bought the RIC trailer in, he failed to post trip and likely did no pretrip at the switch point. In just one of the many other instances, a driver came over to me and told me his trailer was leaning to one side and couldn't determine why. There were no flats nor broken springs. In doing a simple walk around, I determined that somewhere along the line a shop had replaced 2 low profile tires on the left side with standup tires and left the low pro on the right side. Ol' OS didn't notice that even after spending a hour weighing the trailer and visually checking to assure that it was loaded side to side evenly. But at least he was trying to figure it out. In short, it's not always the company that's at fault, sometimes it's the drivers. They are the ones who have their hands on the machinery and let the motoring public, the company and themselves down.

5.Bill Williams[ January 12, 2015 @ 03:08PM ]

I too worked for R&L, accumulating around 2 milliion miles, and no violations in my fifteen years with them. While not defending the company, I learned that drivers are also at fault for contributing to some crashes other than by their driving. For instance, I was relaying a trailer that had arrived at my home terminal to another terminal. As I did my pretrip, I noticed a spring hanging out a bit farther than normal for the weight. Upon "further inspection", I determined that the single suspension spring was broken and had been that way for some time. Apparently when SP bought the RIC trailer in, he failed to post trip and likely did no pretrip at the switch point. In just one of the many other instances, a driver came over to me and told me his trailer was leaning to one side and couldn't determine why. There were no flats nor broken springs. In doing a simple walk around, I determined that somewhere along the line a shop had replaced 2 low profile tires on the left side with standup tires and left the low pro on the right side. Ol' OS didn't notice that even after spending a hour weighing the trailer and visually checking to assure that it was loaded side to side evenly. But at least he was trying to figure it out. In short, it's not always the company that's at fault, sometimes it's the drivers. They are the ones who have their hands on the machinery and let the motoring public, the company and themselves down.

6.Ross Thompson[ February 12, 2015 @ 08:00PM ]

This accident shouldn't happen, I watch this case closely seeing the driver go to court in Hawaiian shirts and laughing and just not caring,biggest surprise he thought he killed Miss Bush wow you would have thought he would have tried to help her get 2 missing dogs (dead dogs) this driver had driven many miles , errors in logs company never caught this is what I call the a real piece of work.I wonder what happen to him? Hope he not driving! Since this was his third rear end accident you would think Texas or his company would have done something do again this wouldn't happen. Nothing can ever bring back the Bobbie Bush that was hit on 12/5/11 ,I do wish her the best.

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